Academic-Practice Partnership Pivot During COVID-19 Pandemic Surge

Abstract

Health care systems continue to experience the sequential aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with major care access, quality, safety, financial sustainability, and workforce considerations. Yet, academic-clinical partnership opportunities exist for transformational change, even when efforts to respond to a pandemic seem insurmountable. A nursing partnership between an academic health center nursing school and university health system provided short-and long-term support for the nursing workforce shortage during a COVID-19 surge. An academic-clinical integration framework guided planning, clinical support activities, outcomes achieved, technology innovations, and shared lessons associated with these efforts. The COVID-19 surge response steps included a call to action, preparation for surge support by the academic and clinical partners, and a team approach for clinical service delivery by faculty, students, and staff. Through the 6-week COVID-19 surge response, more than 10 000 hours of hospital nurse staffing were provided by nursing school faculty and students; over 770 worked shifts that provided approximately 30% of the full surge hospital supplemental staffing and approximately 46 000 vaccine encounters. Wellestablished academic-clinical nursing partnerships allow for quick pivots in the rapidly changing COVID-19 environment that can enhance nursing clinical proficiency and competency, augment clinically immersive learning, and reinforce analytics to measure health outcomes, lower costs, improve access, quality, safety, and workforce conditions.

Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nursing Education: A National Study of Prelicensure RN Programs

“…In applying this approach, many programs strengthened ongoing or developed new collaborative opportunities with employers. Harper et al (2022) described how faculty and students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing provided more than 10,000 hours of hospital staffing, more than 770 worked shifts—equivalent to 30% of the supplemental staffing during surge events—and approximately 46,000 vaccine encounters. Such partnerships, though likely underutilized ( Martin & Kaminski-Ozturk, 2023 ), provided critical opportunities to support and improve the clinical education of prelicensure students at a time of need.…”

Innovations in Academic/Clinical Partnerships During COVID-19 to Prepare a Ready Nursing Workforce

“…The roles of the partners developed over time through collaboration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These partners created a pilot clinical training program (described previously by Harper et al, 2022 ) that engaged nursing students, faculty, and professional nursing staff that began with the second surge (December 2020–January 2021) of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Three iterations of this pilot program were deployed to meet the needs of the hospital and strengthen the learning experiences for students and faculty during the pandemic.…”

“…Supervision and mentoring of students were also provided by staff nurses as part of the program initiative. Additionally, this competency-based approach allowed nursing students to demonstrate competence in various settings and contexts as detailed in the article by Harper et al (2022) . In doing so, students and faculty provided workforce relief, students were allowed to practice at the top of their skills and competencies, and care was enhanced for patients and families.…”

“…The pilot program that allowed our partnership to pursue this collaborative work was essential to our progress and successful outcomes and is a tribute to the ABN’s regulatory leadership in response to the pandemic challenges in our state. As described by Harper et al (2022) , this partnership resulted in the hospital nursing workforce, which included 111 students and 15 faculty, providing 10,000 hours of hospital nurse staffing in 770 worked shifts during the period of highest need, from December 2020 through January 2021. The faculty and students provided approximately 30% of the care at a 500% lower cost than if travel nurses had been hired.…”

“…A secondary aim of this article is to describe how recently approved ABN regulations benefitted partnership outcomes. Working within new regulatory ABN guidelines designed to address the urgent nursing workforce needs exacerbated by the pandemic, we built on extant faculty and student nursing competencies, allowed students to practice (with supervision) to the top of their nursing skills and competencies, enhanced care delivery for patients and families, and supported nurses and other health professionals ( Harper et al, 2022 ). This responsive change in regulation prompted opportunities for our academic/clinical partnership innovations over time.…”